In the period 16 to 20 March 2015, in the headquarters of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Switzerland, Geneva, were held the meetings of the Standing Committee on the Law of Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographical Indications (SCT).

The session was attended by over 170 representatives from 77 member states, four intergovernmental international organizations (BOIP, WTO, African Union (AU), South Centre (SC) and eight non-governmental international organizations (AIPLA, ECTA, INTA, JTA, BEDA, JPAA, oriGin ICANN).

Republic of Moldova was represented by Mr. Simon Levitchi, Director of Trademarks, Industrial Designs Department, State Agency on Intellectual Property of the Republic of Moldova (AGEPI) and Igor Moldovan, First Secretary of the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Moldova to the UN Office and other international organizations in Geneva.

In his address to the participants in the work of SCT, Mr. Francis Gurry, WIPO Director General, said that lately, globally, we see increasing interest in the protection of industrial designs (ID), as demonstrated by the increasing number of applications submitted by national procedure. It was also observed an increased interest in the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of ID by submitting accession documents by the USA and Japan on 13 February 2015. Thus, from May 13, 2015 these two countries will become members of the Hague Agreement. In this context, the completion of drafting the Treaty in the field of industrial designs (DLT) remains a priority for Member States.

In the Committee was discussed the development of “WIPO Recommendations on the Protection of Country Names”. Republic of Moldova reflected its experience in the document submitted to WIPO http://www.wipo.int/export/sites/www/sct/en/comments/pdf/sct32/moldova.pdf

To examine the experience of WIPO Member States in the field, it was organized the Seminar “Protection of Country Names and Nation Brands” http://www.wipo.int/edocs/mdocs/sct/en/sct_33/program.pdf. In the Seminar were presented communications reflecting the financial aspects to evaluating nation brands; practice of the European Community on brands that include country names; practice of Jamaica and New Zealand on the development and promotion of country brands.

Another topic on the protection of geographical indications was discussed on the basis of the proposal by the USA to develop a study that would reflect the practice of WIPO Member States on the protection of geographical indications and the joint proposal by the Delegations of the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Republic of Moldova, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland on the “Protection of Geographical Indications and Country Names in the Domain Name System”.

More details and related documents about the meetings of the Committee can be found here: http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/details.jsp?meeting_id=35589